Phoenix, AZ—When I began
lobbying the Arizona State Legislature for the Arizona Association of Licensed
Private Investigators it was a real eye opener.
There are 90 members of the
Legislature and back then they were not yet subject to term limits. Many of them were seemingly decent.
The self-elected leadership
had the real power and they were difficult to talk to about the legislation
that was with beneficial or damaging to the industry, taxpayers or both. Along
with the power of leadership came magnificent arrogance.
There was a price for even
minimal meaningful access. Without
campaign contributions or other payments there was no access to the
leadership. Access to the unwashed
members was usually free but in general getting any significant help from them was also for
sale.
There was an undercover law
enforcement sting conducted in 1991 called AZSCAM. It was named after the notorious FBI sting
call ABSCAM.
The late Arizona undercover
operative named, Joe Stedino brought bags of cash to members of the Legislature
and found several incredibly reckless and greedy takers. Hidden video of these fools grabbing the cash
made for great television! They were quickly
indicted, disgraced and served prison terms.
Sadly the leadership of the
Legislature was warned by the late director of the AZ Dept of Public Safety and
avoided Stedino like the plague.
I knew some the defense
lawyers and prosecutors well enough that they told me about the tip off.
However nobody could ever prove that was the case. Arizona’s political leaders made sure that the
AZSCAM investigation would never widen.
It's politicians that appoint all of
the top law enforcement jobs and chasing corrupt government officials is a quick career ender. There are very rare
instances where the leadership wants to exile some fellow member not considered
a team player and he or she just might win a trip to Club Fed.
Every AZ lobbyist knew that
they were dealing with legislative pimps and whores. Getting their needed
leadership legislative access was anything but free. Those that
could paid up and were successful. Since
I had empty pockets AALPI always went without.
The extortion game was somewhat reversed because lobbyists learn the unwritten pay to play rules. Matching the success moving legislation with
the contributions is simple. However nobody ever
gets in trouble anymore in any city council, state legislature of for that
matter the U.S. Congress.
Recently I read something
that amazed me. A professor at a
prestigious university wrote about something that just rocked my
conscious. A foreign government needed
access to our Congress and Whitehouse.
Yes, they have ambassadors, but in order to get access they were forced to
hire a high-powered Washington lobbyist!
I actually saw that shameful
lobbyist’s contract. How outrageous is
that? That clear and convincing evidence may never get significant attention!
How can we stop this? Oh, you say simply make a law outlawing the
practice of lobbyists handing out money?
There’s just one problem the pimps and whores in every lawmaking body in
America would never vote for that! I
don’t know the solution; our founding fathers sure fell flat on that one.
Getting elected to any
legislative position is a sure ticket to wealth. For some people crime pays not only pays, it
pays really big. You can count on law
enforcement turning a blind eye for obvious reasons.
What’s the answer? When I’m in the right neighborhood I'm going visit a certain Political Science
professor for his input. Yes, I think it's time for another documentary film!
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